Russian War Crimes (Part 1)

Away End - General Chat
6116

The key point is that the Russian army is performing so poorly, much worse than expected even by the experts, that Ukraine is still holding them off after a month.

The Russians have exposed their ‘bear’ to be declawed, arthritic and almost toothless. They are an embarrassing rabble and serious questions have to be asked whether they could even defend their borders were ‘the west’ minded to invade (as Putin claims to fear).

Ironically this may make the situation more unstable if he has really gone off the paranoid crazy end - as some analysts and the French have speculated - as he may now legitimately (in his eyes) fear invasion and be making detailed plans for a potential preemptive nuclear strike.

2 Likes
6117

Ah yes but the problem is there are so many of the damn branches and they are also falling onto the man and the wood chipper (which has only been hired for the day).

6118

You clearly want to trigger an aggressive response from me. You won’t get it. :wink:

6119
3 Likes
6120

So you’re response to criticism against the Swiss is being really Swiss? Well played. :wink:

2 Likes
6121

Not in the slightest! I generally like your posts, just think that in this situation the hugely privileged Swiss shouldn’t be moaning about absorbing a large refugee intake. America (and most definitely Australia too) may also be able to take more but this is a European conflict and it should be much easier logistically for the Swiss to manage larger numbers (at least initially). Who knows if the Swiss gain and integrate a decent sized Ukranian community they may just add some welcome sporting and cultural diversity (and become precision tractor manufacturers par excellence)…

8 Likes
6122

Well it’s not the amount which come across as frightening, it’s the speed of it. We are a country of immigration anyways, especially for European populations. For instance, we took in a large batch of former Yugoslavia refugees when war broke out there in the nineties. A part turned back to their respective newly formed countries, others stayed with us and are fully integrated as we speak.

These days, as another example, we have around 200k people originally coming from Kosovo, who are now fully integrated. That’s one fifth of the total Kosovo population, and 2,5% of ours! It hasn’t gone without problems initially, but now all is fine more or less, and, in the long term, this immigration wave has turned out as to be more positive than negative imo.

So, taking in 300k people from Ukraine, while a huge task, is achievable over time, and can work out as a positive too as you say. But it’s the potential speed of it… We simply haven’t the housing commodities to take on such a large number within a few months. According to recent articles I’ve read, we have an infrastructure currently allowing us to accept roughly 60k refugees every year. So, what are we supposed to do with the rest? Construct refugee camps somewhere in the mountains and put them in there for five years or so? That would be against everything we usually do with refugees (well, it happened during WW2, so we’ll see).

On the other hand, we can’t accept to let potentially ten millions of people in camps at the Polish-Ukrainian border, so we’ll have no choice but to do something about it, and to take in our fair share, notwithstanding the problems to house these people, to school their children, to find them work etc…

Please note that European countries, from Poland to Ireland, from Portugal to Norway will face the same problems. So, if the States can indeed take a bigger part of refugees than the measly 100k announced so far, it will be more than welcome… :wink:

2 Likes
6123

the usage of drones is such a scumbag move in warfare. Doesn’t matter who uses them, the fact is that there is so much collateral damage when the drones are used indiscriminately. Whether it’s US drone bombing the Pak-Afg border belts or now this

6124

Tbf, there are shit loads of tourist campsites in Switzerland and I can’t imagine the holiday industry is back to capacity yet following the pandemic. Maybe wrong?

Then there are hotels, b&bs, chalets…?

1 Like
6125

I can say that the immigration will be a huge problem. Despite the EU countries being very open and allowing the refugees. It’s what 2 million ? right now.

I do think that the Ukranian refugees would find it easier to assimilate and integrate in though. Namely because the attitude of the countries towards Ukranian refugees is better than the attitude towards Syrians let’s say. It could be because quite a lot of the Ukranian refugees would be educated etc etc as well. But there remains a limit as to how many refugees can be taken in. It’s going to tax a lot of countries and their infrastructure. Brexit in this case doesn’t help the EU as well.

If care isn’t taken, There will be more cracks among the EU in say 6-7 years time when the dust has (hopefully) settled in and then the right wing extremist politicians in the EU countries start cribbing about how their country has had to pay more etc etc etc etc…

1 Like
6126

IF true it´s Number 7 (several different sources are reporting it already)

1 Like
6127

From what I’ve heard recently, we are more or less back to normal in that regard, although we are now deprived of the rich Russian oligarchs… maybe we can seize their luxury chalets to house Ukrainians?.. :wink:

But yeah, thousands of private people have offered to house Ukrainians at their homes, in their chalets and so forth. But it doesn’t go without problems. The state has to check their motives, the quality of the housing, the possibility to school the children from where they are located etc.

I think we are around 3,5 millions right now, and it will continue at that pace as long as Putin bombs the shit out of Ukraine.

2 Likes
6128
1 Like
6129
6130

Ukraine’s population is 43mil right now. Ig this war continues for a prolonged period of time, The EU is going to have a major problem. They can supply all the ammunition they want but the fact is that US won’t take military action against Russia. The US might well achieve it’s end goal of cutting down Putin to size but it’s the EU which is going to face the major economic disaster as well as humanitarian disaster.

Also wasn’t there a US diplomat Nuland who said “Fuck the EU” during the euromaidan ?

6131

Life after sanctions for a Russian oligarch

6132

That’s why I keep saying that we shouldn’t fall in for the ‘white against black’ propaganda on both sides, which naturally creeps up during war time. In reality, there are grey zones everywhere you look at.

1 Like
6133

I also wonder how much migration of people is not just coming from Ukraine but through Ukraine. For those in Russia, Crimea, etc, the mercenaries from Syria, Libya, etc…they might see this as an opportunity to enter the EU at a time when there are credible excuses for not having ID etc.

2 Likes
6134

Not only that

I get that Ukraine is desperate enough to do this and can well understand why they feel the need to do so. But you might well have a hardened criminal or two getting free run across europe as well. If this is fake news and i hope it is , someone can clarify it and refute it hopefully.

6135

It’s not fake, afaik. It’s an issue I raised when the UK government was getting pelters for its visa vetting process that was seen as unduly cautious/officious. Not without foundation may I add but it remains important to check who’s coming into your country.

3 Likes